10 Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Review of Literature
Study of the effect of profanity used on social media on the voting pattern during elections: A case study of Gujarat Legislative Elections 2017 by Tarur, J Page 49
Review of Literature
2.1 Social media: The role, reach and impact.
2.2 Emergence of digital election in India.
2.3 Social media analytics and search engine manipulation.
2.4 Profanity on social media and its far reaching implications
2.5 Summary.
2. Review of Literature
This chapter takes up review of literature to identify variance in studies conducted earlier so that
a solid foundation is established for the current thesis to develop. Review of literature shall also
help in determining the nature of theoretical framework for this study. Different research
methods can be understood that might have been used in similar studies. It also helps in
identifying the research gap which fuels the scope of research to find more insights with better
perspectives.
2.1 Social media: The role, reach and impact

This study has tried to understand the role, reach and impact of social media to find out as to
how it influences the thought process of the users. This research has hence reviewed several
research to gain more insight into this subject.
2.1.a Is political branding a fad or innovation in political communication?
Manuel Adolphsen (2009) in a paper published by the London School of Economics and
Political Science has dealt with the concept of branding in election campaigns and has studied
the role and impact of social media in political communicationi. Since the time political
personalities have realized the impact of social media on moulding the mass thinking patterns,
they have started to heavily rely on it. It can rightly be said that political communication has
come of age with the advent of social media. Political branding, as we know it, is a notable trend
in modern times. The effect that political branding has had on political communication is being
gauged as it has also touched upon the style and pattern of discourse in public life. An example
of political branding being hugely employed to boost political communication is that of the
campaign of US President Barack Obama in 2007-08. The question then arises is whether
political branding is an extended arm and a prominent element of political communication. An
assessment of the approaches adopted by Barack Obama, as against that of Hillary Clinton, was
done taking into account the TV advertisements by both candidates. It was realized that when it
comes to communication there are not many differences, except a few between the two. The
campaign of Obama stands apart in the bit where he has taken heavy support of political
branding in furthering his political narrative. The conclusion therefore was that branding is not a
distinct element in political communication but a unique style adopted by a particular politician.
Every politician adopts a unique style and tends to communicate in several different ways.
A case in point is the US elections of 2008 in which many social media users resorted to
profanity to tarnish the image of Hillary Clinton. Much ill was spoken about the affairs of her
husband, former President Bill Clinton. The social media conversations during that time have
their focus on this one and some other uncomfortable aspects of the Clinton family. In Townhall
discussions, just as on social media, the Clintons were forced to respond to the inappropriate
conduct of Bill Clinton. Even their daughter Chelsea Clinton was not spared when she reached
out to many universities to woo voters. Evan Strange from student newspaper asked Chelsea
whether she felt that the Lewinsky episode had lowered the credibility of her mother as a
candidate. It was seen that the profanity used in this context had greatly affected the interests of
Hillary in the US elections. Thus, however much a country may have progressed, profanity still
prevails. However, there is not much of a link between the development of a country and the use
of profanity on social media and elsewhere. This paper states that branding cannot easily be
detected as a distinct quality in political communication but it is noteworthy that with the
emergence of new media like the digital and social media, it is possible not only to dissect them
but also possible to identify the point of differentiation.
2.1.b Social media users are the new vote bank that politicians need to worry
When one is exploring the use of profanity during elections then there is the need to understand
in perspective the number of regions within India where the reach and impact of social media has
been established. Any study on social media, be it regarding the use of profanity or on any other
parameter, one needs to have a fair idea of the high or low impact areas with respect to social
media. A joint study carried out by the independent IRIS Knowledge Foundation in association
with IMIA (The Internet and Mobile Association of India) in 2013 found that Facebook users
may be the new vote bank that the Indian politicians have to worry aboutii. This research
demarcates the urban high impact, medium impact as well as low impact constituencies and not
to forget the no-impact constituencies too. In a classification, the study points out that the high
impact constituencies are those where the number of Facebook users are more than the victory
margin of the winner in the last election held or the number of Facebook users is at least ten per
cent of the total voting population. Of the 543 constituencies, 160 were found to be high impact
constituencies. The medium impact constituencies are those constituencies where a Facebook
user can influence another voter who is not on Facebook. This means the influence of Facebook
content spans out to even those who are not on Facebook.
If the number of Facebook user is in excess of five per cent of the total voting population
then those could be termed as medium impact constituencies. Out of 543 total constituencies a
total of sixty-seven such constituencies were identified by this study. The remaining were either
put in the low constituencies or no impact constituencies. A total of sixty constituencies were put
in low impact category thereby placing the pending 256 of the 543 constituencies in no-impact
category. Since there is a special reference to Gujarat as a case study in this thesis it was found
that of the twenty-six parliamentary constituencies, sixteen were high impact constituencies.
What factors have led to these constituencies in Gujarat to fall under these categories shall have
to be further studied. The deconstruction of social media reach, impact and influence is required
to study the influence of social media on elections.
2.1.c Impact of Internet penetration on the election communication
Ahmed & Cho (2016) have dissected the social media strategies pertaining to Twitter among
different political parties in the 2014 Indian parliamentary electionsiii. If we compare the
campaign strategies of the political parties in the 2014 Indian elections then we realize that
Twitter as a platform has had its own importance and impact. In western democracies Twitter
has already been accepted and has become a part of political communication. The cascading
effect of Twitter was clearly visible in the Indian elections, too. The role of Twitter as an
impactful tool in economically developing democracies is yet to be ascertained. This study has
tried to probe the role of Twitter as an effective instrument of political campaign during the 2014
Indian parliamentary elections, which also happened to be the first large scale experiment with
digital and social media. Eleven political parties put 98,363 posts which this study analyzed
applying multi-level computer-aided and manual methods in order to infer and understand their
strategies of interaction, functional and topics of interest on Twitter at that point of time. This
study also conducted an extensive analysis of the relationship of election results with first time
voters and availability of Internet at state levels. It was found that the new and emerging parties
used this medium to put across their point and as a means of self-validation but the established
parties used it to reinforce the comprehensive election strategies. This study inferred that the
winning party‘s success in the election was directly proportional to their social media use of
Twitter as a medium for communicating with a large chunk of the first-time voters and Internet
penetration. This paper says that role of Twitter in developing countries with low Internet
penetration is yet to be ascertained.
Especially in India, in spite of the Internet accessibility being low (in 2014) in
comparison to the population there is a definite trend that is set by the communication on
Twitter. The context of the communication coupled with the credibility of the political figure
plays a very important role in setting the tone of a communication that is picked up by other
media (traditional and new) and hence the communication steps out of the arena, say Twitter, in
this case. A blanket statement that the role of Twitter in any developing country with low
Internet penetration is yet to be ascertained, might be right in some places but India is a unique
proposition. A study conducted by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) supports
this point. As per the research conducted, out of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies in the country,
160 are high impact constituencies where internet penetration is very high and is proportional to
the number of voters in that particular constituency. Therefore, we have reasons to believe that
Twitter or other social media has a direct influence on the outcome of elections. However, in
constituencies where the Internet penetration is really low, it would be difficult to predict. Hence
India is a special case where there are islands of very high Internet penetration and also areas
where the Internet penetration is very low.
2.1.d Social Media as a tool of change
Ashraf M. Attia, Nergis Aziz, Barry Friedman and Mahdy F. Elhusseiny (2011) in a research
paper jointly done with universities in the United States and Istanbul, Turkey, have studied the
impact of the social media on the Egyptian revolution in2011iv.
The emergence of social media as a powerful instrument of political change has now
been accepted all over the world. Quite a few researches have been conducted to prove the might
of social media‘s massive outreach to bring a political change. This paper analyses the political
changes brought about in Egypt in 2011 which got to be recognized as ‗Revolution 2.0‖. This
phenomenon may have lasted for just eighteen days but this giving birth to a revolution was
beyond the comprehension of observers the world over. This exhibits the power of networking in
a country like Egypt. This study discusses the factors related to the social media networking
which eventually predisposed the people of Egypt to rise in revolt that surprised the observers
and the world media.
Social media proved to be the force that led the people of Egypt to adapt to an attitude
change to bring a change in their country. This, in turn, supported their individual and aggregate
behaviour resulting in a revolution. The paper reinforces the fact that social media has the
strength to provoke the people to rise up in revolt and or take a stand against corruption,
mismanagement of the government or in matters of national interest. Social media has an impact
either positive or negative on people, given its speed and reach. Social media impacts individual
behaviour which, in turn, spreads to become a mood or movement. With respect to the 2104 Lok
Sabha elections in India, social media played the role of a catalyst and was instrumental in
helping people vent their anger, energy and a strong reaction to the incumbent UPA government
which was perceived to be neck deep in corruption, and indulging in nepotism and unfair means.
It may be that people wanted to punish such a government and install a government that could
reverse the bad times to usher in better times. Even in the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections the
study of profanity is an attempt to study this sentimental aspect on social media which could
have an effect on the election outcome.
2.1.e Does social media undermine the press?
Nic Newman, William H. Dutton and Grant Blank (2012) from Reuters Institute of Journalism,
University of Oxford, in their research paper have addressed the concern whether the Fourth
Estate role of the press is being undermined by the Internet in democracy. This paper also
provides the changing patterns of the production of news and the way it is consumed in the UK,
especially with the advent of Internet and social mediav. Multiple methods have been used along
with survey research of individuals in Britain from 2003 to 2011 to derive conclusions, analyzing
the log files of the journalistic sites, with views and opinions of the journalists included. A hectic
rise in the use of Internet and online news was noted since 2003 with the process saturating
around 2009. The obvious stability in news consumption masks the role of digital media and
increasing importance of social media. The study gives insight that the contents from social
media is finding a place of pride and is used by traditional media or the institutional news media
to reinforce its own role in the dissemination of news. A notable aspect is that the people who are
part of the social media network have been using social media to get their own news and also
distribute it on their own, thereby sidelining mainstream media and giving rise to an
independence of news consumers as never seen before. There is a heavy flow of information on
the digital/social media and online. Networked individuals are constantly linked to the Internet,
thereby bringing in existence a ‗fifth estate‘, built on the content created on the digital and social
media.
The consumption of this information, its distribution and propagation have created a
synergy with the Fourth Estate as each respond to the other and ecology gets created. This study
is of the opinion that this phenomenon is going to shape the developing news ecology in other
liberal societies and democracies. However, much more comparative research is required to
establish the validity of this model. Even now, that is, years after this research was done the
convergence of communication with respect to media has been established. There has been a role
reversal in agenda setting and there is interdependence among the traditional and the new
digital/social media that has emerged and taken shape. Even with respect to the Indian elections
there was a clear role reversal found where it was the social media that was the agenda setter and
not the traditional media.
2.1.f Filling the gap and creating clarity on social media
Erkan Akar (2011) from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Afyon
Kocatepe University, Turkey has researched the factors that influence the consumer‘s attitude
towards marketing on social mediavi. He points out that social media has created a massive
consumer community by way of enormous amount of user generated content. This is a tool for
both the consumers and the companies. Besides, they receive valuable feedback to work upon.
To probe further and get insights, a seven factor, consumer-based attitude scale was prepared
with thirty-two items in the list. A questionnaire was prepared by undergraduate students aged 18
to 24. Frequencies, t-test, ANOVA, Factor analysis and Regression analysis were used for data
analysis. This study identified six factors that affected the consumer‘s attitude towards marketing
on social media. These factors are the gap that has to be worked on so that the confusion in the
minds pertaining to these factors could be clarified.
In the 2014 general elections in India, a little less than 42 per cent of the eligible voters
were undecided on whom they would vote as per a research done by Google India and research
agency TNS and released in 2013. The research was mentioned in the book ‗The Big Connect‘
by Shailee Chopra (2014).
2.1.g Social media reduces political polarization
Researcher Pablo Barbera (2015) from New York University has studied how social media
reduces the process of political polarization. He has taken into account the case studies from
Germany, Spain and the US. This very interesting paper was presented at the 2015 APSA
conference. This study says that social media is now becoming or has already become the
primary source of gathering political information, to interact and converse in political
discussions in their social circlevii. Social media is creating ‗eco-chambers‘ where like-minded
people connect with each other as per the studies.
This literature has ignored that people are also equally exposed to contrary opinions
which give them a perspective that they would not be exposed otherwise during offline
conversations. This helps in being more accommodative of different opinions, thereby reducing
extremism in views. To ascertain this phenomenon, the survey developed a method to understand
and acknowledge dynamic ideal points for the social media users. This method was employed to
measure the ideological positions of innumerable individuals in Germany, Spain and the US over
a period of time and also the ideological composition of their immediate group. Results from this
survey clearly depicts that people are integral part of diverse ideological networks and this
exposure to diverse views has a positive effect on their political moderation during exchange of
views on social media. The offline political behaviour was matched with the voter‘s files in
several US states which are available in the public domain and this has strengthened the
inclusion of varied views and opinions. In spite of the conventional wisdom saying otherwise,
these findings prove that social media make political discourse more accommodative and reduce
political polarization. This study debunks the prevailing notion about social media acting as a
polarizing agent. If one were to create a comparison of this theory with the Indian parliamentary
elections in 2014, then one has reasons to believe that the BJP‘s win was not a result of
polarization of political views but because the users of social media had a variety of political
views and opinions to ponder over and to either choose or reject those views and opinions. The
massive support to the prime ministerial candidate was a result of well-presented thought and
well analyzed decision.
2.1.h Social media: The great equalizer
Michael Zenos, Ariadne Vromen and Brian D Loader (2013) in their research paper published in
the Information Communication and Society Journal deal with the insight that the use of social
media and political engagement are correlatedviii. It also believes that social media has the ability
to either stem or reverse the process of political instability. This has been a subject that the
scholars have been trying to dissect for quite some time. This study collects data from the
representative samples of young people from the US, the UK and Australia. This data was later
used to test an articulated model of social media engagements among the youths. The results
express that there is straight connection between the social media use among youths and their
political engagements. Further investigation of the data also provides additional insights about
the process by which youths become politically engaged.
The inferences of this study spells out reasons to positively believe that the overall
influence of this popular new form of digital media on longstanding patterns of political
inequality. The influence of the social media in shaping the political views and political
engagements gets established. The results put forward by this paper reinforces the fact that the
role of agenda setting has now shifted from mainstream media to social media. When corporate
media houses used to set the agenda then they had an additional reason to have a strong balance
sheet for their media company but social media is devoid of any such obligations or burdens
hence social media is impartial to the core. The social media hence become not only an equalizer
but its role as an agenda setter is a topic of interest for all political observers. The Indian
parliamentary elections of 2014 or the Gujarat assembly elections in 2017 both stand witness to
the fact that there was a clear reversal of agenda setting from mainstream media to social media.
2.1.i Using social media to predict the future
The predictability quotient that the tools and analytics of social media provide is an insightful
research done by a set of scholars comprising of Schoen Harald, university of Bamberg –
Germany, Gayo-Avello Daniel from the university of Oviedo, Spain, Takis Metaxas Panagiotis
and Mustafaraj Eni from University of Massachusetts, Strohmaier Markus, Austria and Gloor
Peter from Massachusetts Institute of Technologyix. This research states that an enormous
amount of data is produced by the social media. Users generated data consists of a wide range of
data comprising conversations, interactions, sharing and write ups. Comprehensively this is a
great source of information for computer and social scientists, economists and statisticians to
initiate more research on allied subjects. These data have trends and subjects that are active in
the minds of people and hence become a tool to predict future events and developments that are
to take place. This research has more scope in using widely accept evaluation approaches.
Forecasting models are many and to adapt them to the conditions of social media are analyzed
and the representative research conducted is looked at to draw conclusions. The study also
presents the current research on techniques, methods and empirical studies that are aimed to
predict future events based on the analysis of the contents provided by the social media. The
study introduces the taxonomy of prediction along with their subsequent advantages where they
have been applied. They have described the main areas of predictions made in this study and
summarized it. It has been finally argued that to make accurate predictions on basis of the data
from social media, the statistical model appears to be the most useful. The valuable contribution
of this paper is that it raises valid questions to be answered in the field of social media-based
predictions and forecasting, fills research gap and outlines future lines of work.
The internet penetration is directly proportional to the broadness of content generated and
using the right analytical approach, prediction could be as close as possible. Facebook is a much
sought after social media platform and insights from Facebook could be of great help in this
direction. Can the ‗likes‘ on Facebook be a predictor of election outcome is a question that has
been attempted to be answered. If the ‗likes‘ on a Facebook is to be recorded and observed then
does it exhibit a trend, an emotion, an agreement of views and cumulatively, can these ‗likes‘
help to predict if it will win an election or not was the question that intrigued the researchers.
Francis P. Barclay, C. Pichandy, Anusha Venkat and Sreedevi Sudhakaran (2015) published a
research paper in the Asian Journal of Political Science investigating this very question. They
took the case study of the 2014 Indian parliamentary elections. They listed out the verified and
authenticate Facebook pages of different political parties with a view to study them and analyzed
themx. They found out that there the number of ‗likes‘ that a particular leader got on his
Facebook page and the popular votes he received were directly proportional to each other. The
political preference of the people as the single latent variable had explained 91.3% of the total
variance in those two variables. In addition to this the time period chosen to record the ‗likes‘
also had a positive effect on the votes garnered. One interesting insight was that the preceding
month before the voting was apt to predict the effect of the ‗likes‘ on the vote‘s garnered and
possible outcome. The accuracy found out was 86.6%. Through several studies it has been
proved that there is a correlation between popularity, i.e. ‗likes‘ and the ability to win. A time
period closer to the voting date is also a climax of emotion. Emotions are at its peak, people
usually tend to vent it out either in support or against any candidate or party. In such a situation
if a political leader is on the side of ‗likes‘ then he or she gets an edge. Further research would be
needed to answer the question like what makes a content ‗likable‘ or why do people like a
particular post on Facebook or how to ensure that the content resonates with the people and
touches their hearts and minds
2.1.j A bouquet of digital technologies for comprehensive communication
Anabel Quan-Haase, University of Western Ontaria and Alyson L. Young, University of
Baltimore (2010) have compared Facebook and Instant Messaging in a research paper published
in the Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society which analyses that users have acquired a
wide range of digital technologies into their communication repertoirexi. Over a period of time
substituting one medium with other is not noted but people are using multiple modes of
communication. The questions thus arise regarding the kinds of needs that demand multiple uses
of technologies in order to fulfil them.
The authors conducted a comparative study to examine the kind of gratifications obtained
from instant messaging and Facebook. This gives idea about the different kinds of needs of the
users that are fulfilled by both instant messaging and Facebook and draws conclusion. A multi-
method study based on seventy-seven surveys and twenty-one interviews was employed to
collect data. When a factor analysis was conducted on the gratifications obtained from Facebook,
it revealed six important dimensions viz. pastime, affection, fashion, sharing problems,
sociability, and social information. It was observed by this survey and resulting data that
Facebook is more about fun, networking and source of information whereas instant messaging is
more personal, maintaining relations and exchange of personal information. The integration of
these two different media by the users is based on difference that these two media offers and the
gratification that the users get from it. Cumulatively the integration helps the users to shape his
or her communication habits. Now the present day surveys have substantially proved that in
today‘s time the term social media comprises a bouquet of tools. Every tool has its own features
and benefits. It is necessary to understand what role each tool plays in ensuring the maximization
of reach in social media. Depending on the function of each tool it appears that a mix of
communication tools is mandatory to ensure maximum reach. This research explores the
different components of social media to see if the objectives of the research are related to the
findings of the research.
2.1.k Facebook is the new communication tool for political parties
Julia K. Woolley, Anthony M. Limperos and Mary Beth Olive (2010) have probed the role of
social media especially Facebook not just as a building and relationship maintaining platform but
as an impactful platform for political communicationxii. To generate more insights, they
undertook the content analysis of user-generated political Facebook groups. A closer look
reveals that till the day of the voting Facebook users who were focused on Barack Obama and
John McCain created more than 1000 Facebook pages on them. How these Facebook pages
projected and portrayed Obama and McCain was studied through quantitative analysis method.
A closer look suggests that Barack Obama was portrayed as more positive and progressive with
clarity in views and policies in comparison to John McCain. In addition, while being portrayed
the use of profanity, racial, religious and age-related language was too studied and coded with
respect to their portrayal on social media. This study also discussed the practical and theoretical
implications. The emergence of a media that is truly social and democratic in nature has
empowered the people to speak out their minds without fear.
This coupled with large internet penetration in the US has been one of the key reasons for
creation of the massive amount of user generated content. On comparison, the finding of this
study has an uncanny resemblance with the result of the 2014 elections in India. Right from the
national level to state level, district level and subsequently to the booth level, support groups had
created Facebook pages for the BJP, Congress and other parties. All these support groups along
with their pages were not authenticated by the political parties but these Facebook pages gave a
required edge to the prime ministerial candidate. The content and sentiments it created did help
Modi ultimately win the election which reinforces the result of this study that Facebook is now a
powerful communication tool for political parties especially during elections and it can influence
the mindset of the voters either in favour or against any candidate or party. Even in this research
an attempt shall be made to see if Facebook still remains the prominent component of the social
media.
2.1.l The social media is now the most powerful equivalent to the mouth publicity
Grow, Gabriella, Ward and Janelle are authors of the research paper that investigates the role of
authenticity in electoral social media campaignsxiii. Authenticity is the primary word when it
comes to branding and integrity and hence cannot be discounted on social media too. It is
expected of the political leaders to be authentic in their interactions with the electorates. The
2008 Presidential elections in the US have ushered in the era of social media political
campaigning and ever since have evolved into a powerful communication tool. The researchers
used the Gilpin, et al‘s (2010) definition of authenticity as a basis of their theory. They
conducted interviews with US democrats to understand their perceptions of candidate‘s
Facebook pages especially with respect to authenticity. Refinement of the existing definitions of
authenticity and how candidates can express and express genuineness in social media campaigns
to garner support. Authenticity is the biggest asset in brand building. Speaking from the heart
and effectively communicating the same to the people has a great impact and increases the
credibility of the said candidate. There is surety regarding the impact of mouth publicity and
social media has emerged as the most powerful equivalent to the mouth publicity. The pros and
cons have been properly analyzed to understand the subject. Be it the 2014 Indian parliamentary
elections or the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections, Narendra Modi comes out as a powerful
communicator with more authentic quotient to his side of the narrative which is evident by the
widespread support he garners especially on the social media and attracts strong reactions for
both in support and against his narrative.
2.1.m Social media reflects the wisdom of the crowds
Wisdom of the Crowds is a research paper by Franch Fabio which dealt with the 2010 UK
election prediction by comprehensive analysis of the social media contentxiv. The vote share of
different political parties were predicted using the concept behind Galton‘s predictive wisdom of
crowds first by finding out a sum total at the media level, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Twitter
Sentiment, , Google, the political opinion of the audience and second, by averaging at the media
level prediction. It was found that the ARIMA, i.e., auto regressive integrated moving average
model gave the predictions for the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, and Conservatives which
were found to be 0.48, 0.83 and 0.19 respectively of their actual vote share. This study was
conducted in 2013 but since much advancement has taken place both at technological and
analytical level and would take the prediction to more accurate levels. However, the ‗wisdom of
crowds‘ is an age-old concept which if properly decoded, can be of extraordinary help. The
collective wisdom inferred from social media has been found to reflect in the final outcome of
elections as in the case of Indian parliamentary elections 2014. The power of social media to
influence the impressions and creating a thought has now been well documented so this is an
important and useful area of research. This research also tries to study if the concept of
‗collective‘ expression takes place in aspect other than wisdom, i.e., venting out frustration,
anger and complaint.
2.1.n Social media has emerged as a disruptive communication platform
In the 2015 UK elections the influence of the mainstream media and the social media was
measured in a research paper by Moore, Martin, Ramsay, Gordon published in the international
journal of communication ethics (2016)xv. In this study an experimental news content analysis
project named ‗Election Unspun‘ was set up and managed. This project collected more than 3000
tweets from important political figures and opinion leaders, the national newspaper coverage was
collected, and websites of important media houses were collected and analyzed during the 2015
general election. The result of the study revealed that the 2015 UK was a complete stage-
managed election. The analysis of their communication on different media points out that the
entire important political leadership from both Conservative and Labour parties were eager to
express their opinions about economy and the media mainly followed their lead. It has been
proved through several studies that the mainstream media has lost its monopoly on agenda
setting and social media has emerged as a disruptive communication platform. There is a general
agreement that social media tools make this even more impactful so there is a scope to study
these tools and define them. This research also tries to probe an important aspect of the social
media so that there could be very comprehensive understanding of social media as a tool of
political communication
2.2 Emergence of digital election in India
The 2014 parliamentary elections has seen the emergence of digital elections in India. This
research has reviewed several literatures to gain more insights into the aspect of digital elections
in India.
2.2.a Social media has been one of the key differentiating factors in reaching out and
convincing the voters during elections
Arindrila Biswas, Nikhil Ingle and Moushumi Roy (2014) have dissected the influence of social
media in the voting behaviour in election in their research paper published in the Journal of
Power, Politics and Governancexvi. Social media has been one of the key differentiating factors
in reaching out and convincing the voters during elections. They observed that at the time of the
2014 elections around 149 million new first-time voters were added to the voters list. Being
young and literate, technology came easy to them. They were youngsters who were either busy
studying or working and had very little time to sit in front of a television set or read newspapers.
But since most of them were equipped with a cell phone powered by the internet, social media
became a natural expression for their view for both expressing their views and gathering
information. They were getting more and more active on social media. Through this research
paper the authors have tried to understand if by getting influenced by social media, young voters
would cast their vote in the elections of 2014 which was around the corner. Other issues they
dealt with was whether the political parties with their social media strategies could convince the
first-time voters and succeed in getting their vote. Their research dealt with all these issues. This
paper has tried to predict the influence of social media in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The
perspectives presented are supportive of the reality that presented itself at the end of the election
result.
2.2.b Metamorphosis of Indian parliamentary elections
In a research paper named ‗Metamorphosis of Indian election campaigns: Modi's social media
experiments‘ by Kawaljeet Kaur Kapoor and Yogesh K Dwivedi (2015), an attempt has been
made to see the emergence of ‗digital election‘ in India and how Modi had an upper hand in
using the digital and social mediaxvii. The 2014 election results were unprecedented where the
BJP could form a government with an absolute majority all by itself with the Congress party
witnessing one of the worst electoral defeats in its existence.
The election of Narendra Modi as the 15th prime minister of India was arrival of a new
phenomenon in electioneering in India. The victory of the BJP and its prime ministerial
candidate has been debated threadbare and analyzed across all possible media for all its
innovative approaches adapted especially the social media strategies which turned out to be a
two-way dialogue between Modi and the electorate.
A vivid and uncanny resemblance to the Obama-led presidential campaign was seen
because of the hyper use of social media, communication strategies and the prime ministerial
candidate being projected as the fulcrum of all communication. The election warriors of Modi
followed strategy to outcast the ruling Congress party. This was anatomized with a special focus
on the social media strategy which gave Modi the winning edge over his rivals. Beyond this
study, it has to be taken into account that two-way communication could become impactful on
account of a context. This context was of the UPA government run by the Congress party failed
on multiple fronts, scams of all hues and colours unearthed before the public and emergence of a
general feeling that the country has been let down by the congress. This reflected in people at
large expressing their anger in whatever words that came to their minds. Congress leaders were
at the receiving end of abuses and the use of profanity was at its peak which was believed to be a
natural extension of the anger and pain felt by the people. This researcher has made an attempt to
gauze if the sentiments of 2014 elections was intact in the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections or
had it undergone a tactical shift in expression of sentiments.
2.2.c Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix
Mangold and Faulds (2009) have described the social media as the new homogenous mix
element of the promotion mix. This paper has tried to define correlation between the new hybrid
element of the promotion mix between the impact of communication on social media and the
impact of consumer to consumer communicationxviii. The growth of Internet has also given rise
to new platforms that did not exist before. The internet has made social media possible due to
which one person is able to communicate with innumerable others about the companies, products
and services they provide. If we examine the traditional way business has been conducted for
ages then it is the company that talked to its customers. With the emergence of the new media, a
non- traditional way has come into force wherein customers can talk to one another about the
company and earlier 'control' element has simply vanished. Now the company has no control
over what is discussed about them.
In this circumstance the challenge in front of the companies is to create content that is
shaped and is around the objectives and visions of the company and is congruent with the
company's performance objectives. Ways and means to achieve this are delineated in this study.
Providing the customers with digital platforms that would help them to network and connect
with others, using blogs, social media tools, video-based communication and a plethora of digital
promotional tools are used to engage the customers. Similarly, in the political arena, the
conversation that happens between the supporters of different political parties is beyond the
control of the party or the party machinery.
When the common people express themselves freely, including the use of profanity, on
social media platforms there is no way the political party can control it. The expressions are
impulsive, free, candid and truly democratic. Like corporate companies selling their products,
political parties too can shape their communication in such a manner that their vision, ideology,
policies and stand on different topics are expressed in a way to garner the support of the people.
2.2.d Social media is both alternative and critical
Social media is both ‗alternative‘ and ‗critical‘ says Maya Ranganathan (2016), Macquarie
University, Australia. In her research paper Ranganathan has analyzed the online factors the
social media emerged as the true alternative and critical aspect in the Indian parliamentary
elections in 2014xix. BJP‘s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 employed social media as the
alternative and direct media where he could converse with common people disseminate
information about his vision and policies for the country. Modi did not have the kind of support
from the traditional media therefore it would have hampered his prospects if he had relied on the
traditional media to create his own space. He created his impact from this alternative media
space and succeeded in setting the agenda. In this study the alternative media has been
positioned and studied by keeping in mind its relation to the mainstream media. This study has
illustrated that the new space created by the alternative media has actually contoured the
traditional media and this process has in fact limited the potential of the traditional media to be
the sole transformative process of communication. This study also interrogates the online space
that the political parties occupy with their ecosystem of activists and party members in the
context of theoretical understanding of the ‗alternative‘ and ‗critical‘ media. The Indian public
space has been reconstituted by the digital and social media and this process needs to be further
probed and understood for a sustained study of the subject. Several studies ratify the results of
this study.
There is no doubt that the traditional media has lost its monopoly over dissemination of
information on account of the emergence of social media but many more layers of information is
still required to understand the reason behind this impact of social media. What drives this
impact, which factors play an important role to ascertain that social media succeeds in
influencing the voters, what mix of tools are required to ensure that the social media message
reaches and creates the impact? Is just the social media enough to reach out to the social media
users or any strategic mix of tools does the trick? The analysis of all these factors cumulatively
put together shall give the required insight needed to prove the conditions under which the social
media impact behaves. This research attempts to explore the behaviour in which some social
media users resort to profanity, its overall effect on the society and the electoral process.
2.3 Search engine manipulation influence voter manipulation
Robert Epstein and Ronal E Robertson (2014), have tried to understand the correlation between
search engine manipulation and its possible impact on the outcomes of electionsxx. They
conducted five experiments in two different countries and put forward the evidence to suggest
the might and validity of the search engine manipulation effect (SEME). Specifically, it shows
that 1) Voting pattern can be shifted up to 20% or more on account of biased search ranking, 2)
depending on the demographic areas and groups, such a shift can even be more, and 3) these
manipulated rankings could also be masked so that any awareness on this does not get created
and the invincibility maintained.
Knowledge of the magnitude of those voters in a population who have access to internet,
along with the knowledge of the number of voters who could be influenced using SEME could
result in determination of an election outcome. Acknowledging the might of search rankings,
voters were asked if they could be manipulated to change the preferences of the uncommitted
voters. Five randomized pre-strategized experiments were conducted among 4,556 undecided
voters picked up from different demographic locations of the USA and Indian voting population.
The fifth experiment of very interesting and noteworthy. In this experiment in the midst of
India's 2014 parliamentary elections just before the final vote was cast views of the eligible
voters throughout India were sought. The result of these experiments reinforces the findings that
have been mentioned above. This influence has been called the Search Engine Manipulation
Effect. It has been noted that many elections are won by small margins, experiment results show
that a search engine company can influence the results of a substantial number of elections with
impunity. Search engine manipulation is a subject that needs more insights. Even at the research
level there is scope for more in-depth study.
The use of social media has already taken a trajectory and hence it can be inferred that
the effect of social media on the people is directly proportional to search engine manipulation.
This valuable insight shall help in understanding the behaviour exhibited on the social media or
the factors that could have influenced to extract such a behaviour from the social media users.
2.3.a Internet the new mind control mechanism
In a study published on aeon.co, Robert Epstein has been trying to gain more clarity on the
elusive characteristics of influence that can have a control on everything we do and we say. He
calls the internet the new mind control mechanismxxi. An experiment with the time duration of
one week was planned on Facebook, in which 689,000 users of the social media platform were
either sent news which contained a lot of positive terms, or they were sent news feeds containing
excessive negative terms. Also, there was a set of users who were sent neither. Social media
users who received excessive positive terms were found to be using more positive term whereas
those who had received excessive negative terms were found to use more negative terms in their
communications. This proved that the emotional state of the social media users could be
influenced and manipulated in a big way. People were extremely upset that such an experiment
was conducted without consent of the participants.
The profiles on Facebook are so massive that it can add up to the population of several
countries put together. Google is also collecting information round the clock. It has over sixty
different observation platforms. In addition to the search engine, there is Google Wallet, Google
Maps, Google Adword, Google analytics, Chrome, Google Docs, Android, , and so on. Gmail
users are in most cases not aware of the fact that they have mandated Google to stores and
analyse every email they write including the drafts they never send and all the incoming mails
they receive from both Gmail and non-Gmail users. Google has fairly good idea of the undecided
voters and if it was to fix an election then it can put the influencing mechanism in place and
achieve the objective. When we sign up for Google we actually agree and give it the write to
store, analyze and share our information it collects with almost anyone that it deems fit. The
language of the privacy policy is never read by the users as one just wants to use its services.
Google can do data mining of the database of personal information that it has collected and send
customized rankings favouring candidates or parties of its choice. This kind of manipulation is
simply difficult to comprehend and detect for the investigators.
2.3.b. Understanding the effects of new media technologies that have emerged on elections
A research paper on the use of social media by the 2012 presidential candidates and the impact it
has created on the candidate salience has been published by Sounman Hong and Nadler Daniel
(2012). In the ongoing political debate the centre of discussion was to understand the effects of
new media technologies that have emerged and being used in the election media and the impact
they had on the 2012 US Presidential electionsxxii. A correlation is being probed between the
candidate‘s extent of engagement on the social media and the candidate salience. The definition
of candidate salience can be gauzed by the extent to which the presidential candidates become
the topic of discussion on social media. The number of mention on Twitter was collected to
decide the candidate salience.
This exercise was undertaken to understand whether the social media has the power to
challenge the traditional dynamics of the elections in the US which is as a result of social media
being recognized as a disruptive phenomenon. It was observed that heightened activity on social
media does impact and increase the modes and methods of political election campaign but as per
this study it is yet be ascertained that high activity on social media increases the amount of
public attention they receive online. It has been noted in several other observations that context
and political circumstances too has an effect on a candidate being discussed in a big way on
social media, and then there are several tools that could also be employed to ensure that certain
topic and leaders attached to it receive much more attention. There is scope for more academic
investigation on this subject. This research too has scope to understand that context and
circumstances have an effect on the candidate being discussed in a big way. The caste agitations
during the 2017 election provide an apt situation to test this aspect.
2.3.c. Predicting the election results by applying the sentiment analysis
This research paper has tried to investigate whether it was possible to get an idea about voter
preference by studying the social mediaxxiii. A research was conducted by Daniel Jose Oliveira,
Paulo Bermejo and Pamela Santos from the Universidale Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil). This
study compared the sentiment analysis and opinion polls to find insights. Sentiment analysis was
applied to the results of the data obtained from the social media and it was noted if it could
reveal the political preference of the voters to a fairly good degree of accuracy when compared to
the traditional public opinion surveys. In the Brazilian presidential election, 92,441 tweets
related to the Brazilian presidential candidate at the time of the second round of the elections in
2014. Datafolha Research Institute had successfully conducted six voter preference polls.
The results of these six voter preference polls were then compared to the results of the
sentiment analysis obtained from the social media data. The results indicated that the sentiment
analysis was very different from the traditional research. Sentiment analysis result was found out
to be of the accuracy of1% to 8% whereas the traditional research showed an accuracy of
81.05%. If one were to compare this phenomenon to a country like India then one has to
understand that organized big data is still to be defined in India. In the absence of an organized
big data concept, sentiment analysis could not be accurate but this study shows that sentiment
analysis helps in predicting the results of the elections and it stands true to India as well. This
aspect could be studied further.
2.3.d. Studying the social media as an analytic framework
In a research conducted by Stefan Stieglitz, department of Information systems, University of
Muenster, Muenster, Germany, the author has tried to study the social media as an analytic
frameworkxxiv. In last few years social media have definitely created an impact on the public
discourse as well as general communication in the society. The political usage of social media
has seen a steep rise as it serves the purpose very efficiently. Micro blogging service like Twitter
and social media sites like Facebook have been more relevant in the political engagement in
recent times. Twitter has proved to be an ideal platform for disseminating information as well as
generating public opinions because of its networking aspect and this has been lapped up by the
politicians and the political parties. Facebook is a social media platform which helps to build
online communities that can exchange direct conversations and discussions. Many studies have
put forward the fact that collecting, analyzing, monitoring, summarizing and visualizing
politically relevant information from social media can give insights and inferences which could
be valuable. Now when a lot of social media and digital media have to be cumulatively studied
and analyzed then it becomes a real challenge as there is a large amount of data coupled with all
the complexities of information. In case we wish to dig out data from different social and digital
media and analyze it then very systematic tracking methods shall have to be defined and
developed. Scientific methods and techniques in tracking and analysis is still lacking when it
comes to political domain. This study proposes a methodological framework that is put forward
for social media analytics in political context which helps to summarize politically relevant
issues from the political perspectives and developing corresponding methodologies from
different disciplines.
2.3.e. Decoding the social media analytics
Jure Leskovec, Stanford University USA has published a research paper which tracks, models
and predicts the flow of information through networksxxv. The emergence of social media has
fundamentally altered the way information is being produced, consumed and shared. There is
social media, then micro blogging sites, blogs and short messaging services like WhatsApp in
addition to digital media and all these put together give rise to enormous amount of user
generated data. These user generated data are a connection between the producer and the
consumer of this data. The pulse of the social media could be tracked and feedback gained so
that with the help of the insights inferred companies could improve and market their products in
a better way.
The enormous information and opinions that users express on social media help to tap
into the collective wisdom of crowds and also help in framing and taking more informed
decisions. This paper probes the techniques for modelling, analytics and optimization on the
social media. The authors first collect very large-scale data from the social media then they
present ways and means for coping and correcting for the effects arising from missing and
incomplete data. As the information spreads it is tracked and information extracted among the
users. The growing and fading away of any information is understood by examining the methods
for extracting temporal patterns. Based on this the popularity and attention that a piece of content
is studied to quantify and maximize its effect for diffusion and adoption which leads to building
of predictive models for the same. The tracking of sentiments running through the social media
network is tracked then the point which needs to be reinforced or the information that can behave
like a problem solving toll could be devised. Even in political communication, the data mining
from digital and social media network when tracked, collected and analyzed helps to strategize
better and contour the prevailing sentiments. The findings of this research could be useful in
explaining political communication with better as the aspect pertaining to the use of profanity
could be better understood.
2.4 Profanity: A rising trend in Indian politics
www.elections.in is an election website and blog. In an article published in December 2014 it
covers abusive language / profanity as a growing trend in politicsxxvi. The article has cited several
examples to prove its point. The use of very objectionable profanity by Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, a
union minister during the Delhi elections received a warning from the Prime Minister himself.
The article cites several examples of loose cannons in politics like Azam Khan from
Uttar Pradesh calling his rival Amar Singh a ‗debauch‘ and ‗broker‘ in 2009 or a BJP MLA
Heeralal stating that ―Sonia and Rahul Gandhi should be stripped off their clothes and sent to
Italy‖. Then BJP‘s campaign manager Amit Shah was banned by the Election Commission of
India during the 2014 election and the ban was rescinded only after Shah promised not to use
abusive or derogatory language. Baba Ramdev in 2014 had made a remark that Rahul Gandhi
went to the house of Dalits for honeymoon and picnic. He too was banned and reprimanded by
the EC for this conduct. Election times are like war times. In every election it is normal for
political parties to make cross complaints against each other and as a result the Election
Commission regularly puts political parties ―on notice‖ over the use of abusive language. There
is enough evidence to prove that profanity is a global trend, even in nations that are supposedly
civilized too resort to profanity. In an interview on June 8th,2010 on Today show, US President
Barak Obama surprised all by using the term ―whose ass to kick‖ or George W Bush described a
reporter as ‗asshole‘ during the 2000 campaign or Late Lyndon Johnson using profanity against
the Canadian Prime Minster for his anti-Vietnamese stand. President Erdogan slammed
protestors calling them ―looters‖, and opposition in turn answered back by calling the ruling
party ―half intellectuals, terror peddlers, blood barons, death mongers.‖ BBC was forced to
apologize following a ―f**kwit‖ remark by a conservative MP, Nick Herbert, during a live show.
The blog finds that self-restraint is missing in today‘s politicians and the political culture
therefore it needs more concerted efforts to discourage the use of profanity in public either
through legislation or through state measures. Mudslinging and filth throwing goes unabated
among politicians. In an article in www.hindubusinessline.com , Rasheeda Bhagat has looked
into the use of abusive language in politicsxxvii. She puts in that right in the middle of the Gujarat
Assembly elections in 2017, Congress leader Manishankar Aiyar called the Prime Minister
―Neech Kisam ka Aadmi‖ which would translate as a low, despicable, insufferable person. This
profanity was found to be both grave and highly objectionable. People at large disapproved and
fearing a backlash, Aiyar was suspended from the party. This article gives example of some
Congress leader Salman Nizami from Kashmir comparing the lineage of Rahul Gandhi with the
lineage of Narendra Modi, thereby trying to say that Modi‘s ancestors were nothing and
nobodies. These kinds of utterances were examples of profanity and insult which people did not
approve and congress was at the receiving end.
Raheeda Bhagat states that there were videos of BJP leaders mocking Manmohan Singh,
the former Prime Minister as ―maun baba‖ (Silent Hermit), ―namard‖ (impotent) and a lot. There
was lot of mudslinging and filth throwing and one is reminded of the Congress President Sonia
Gandhi‘s ―Maut ka Saudagar‖ remark for then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The speed
at which such profanity is used and spread is mainly due to the enlivened social media. The
social media is absorbed by the masses and as a result the profanity used by the politicians is
brought to the notice of the people at large. This makes it even more important to gather more
insights into the use of profanity in political communication.
2.4.a. Effect of profanity on citizen-to-citizen online commenting
It is an established fact that tempers run high during a political online discussion especially when
profanity is resorted to. How does this influence the commenting patterns among social media
users on a one to one basis is what this paper published by Kwon and Cho (2015) has
studiedxxviii. They created a data out of all the comments of the users made over a period of two
months taken from 26 different news website in South Korea. This study examined the effects of
profanity as well as its connection with anonymity on accumulating public attention and
influencing the perceptions of other social media users. It was found out that profanity and
swearing had a positive effect to gather attention and also it helped to gain approval from other
social media users. When political and non- political discussions were studied then it was found
that political discussions attracted more attentions and approvals in comparison to non-political
discussions. The study points out that accepted level of profanity or swearing varies across news
topical arenas. The phenomenon of like-minded social media users flocking to support a political
issue even if it contained swearing was noted in clear terms. The study highlights the importance
of emotional charged up situations in shaping discursive participation in contemporary social and
digital media environment. Use of profanity is one such situation where the social media user is
emotionally charged and hence expression through profanity is one such outcome. This research
precisely tries to study this aspect.
2.4.b. India takes tough stand against social media misuse:
An article published by the www.firstpost.com on Aug‘ 26, 2018, states how serious India is in
tackling any kind of misuse of data by social media platforms. Addressing the plenary of the G-
20 Digital Economy Ministerial meeting in Salata, Argentina, Information Technology Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad reiterated India‘s commitment to ensure that the purity of the democratic
process remains intactxxix.
The Indian investigating agencies were informed of some discrepancies and unethical
conduct by British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica for obtaining and misusing
the data of Indians from the Facebook. An inquiry to look into this has been initiated by the
Indian authorities. According to Prasad the Indian Govt. is of the opinion that privacy cannot be
a protective layer ‗for the corrupt or terrorists‘ and data must remain unknown. If at all data has
to be procured then it has to be acquired legally with prior consent in a transparent manner. He
said although Indian Govt. did not have any intention of imposing any restrictions on messaging
applications and would search for ‗technical solutions‘ to contain instances of misuse of these
apps. This article speaks of the seriousness that arises when these instant messaging apps are
misused and the kind of damage it can cause to the society at large. The awareness on these
issues is rising at the government level. Check and balances through agreeable means is a
solution that the governments across the globe are trying to find out.
2.4.c. Un-parliamentary language non-congruent to democracy
Election website www.elections.in in its blog has dissected the issue of profanity in an article
titled ‗Un-Parliamentary Language of Politicians‘. The blog clearly states that Indian politicians
do not hesitate from using un-parliamentary, inflammatory, or even abusive words quite oftenxxx.
This trend has become epic without showing any signs of decline. Some cases stated by
the articles is of Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar in 2013, made fun of the hunger strike by
farmers in a state under a severe draught. In a reply to demand to release water from the dam, the
minister asked whether he should urinate in the dam to supply water. Entire country was taken
aback by this insensitive and irresponsive statement. Bihar‘s Rural Works and Panchayati Raj
Minister Bhim Singh mocked the people and said that people join the Army to die in response to
a question asked as to why the state ministers did not receive the bodies of the martyrs at the
airport, who died at the LOC. Mulayam Singh Yadav expressed his medieval mindset and said
reacting to the death sentence given to the three accused persons of Mumbai‘s Shakti Mills rape
case that ‗Boys err sometimes, so will they be punished with death sentence? ‘. Young CM of
UP Akhilesh Yadav told a reporter if he was safe in response to the horrific Badaun rape and
murder incident. A video came out as a blot to the Indian democracy during the 16th Lok Sabha
election when congress candidate from Saharanpur, Imran Masood said that he would chop
Narendra Modi into pieces. A call of this sort by Imran Massod is promoting injustice which has
no place in Indian democracy.
2.4.d. Kicking up a row with abuse
In 2017 Congress leader Manishankar Aiyar called Modi a "neech aadmi" (vile man), who did
"dirty politics", mounted a row on the last day of campaigning for the first phase of the Gujarat
Assembly pollsxxxi. Amit Shah exposed the opposition by citing the words of profanity that the
opposition leaders had used for the Prime Minister ie. "Yamraj, Maut ka Saudagar, Ravan, Gandi
Nali Ka Keeda, Monkey, Rabies Victim, Virus, Bhasmasur, Gangu Teli, Goon were the words of
profanity used by the Congress. A big uproar was created by such below the belt remark by
Aiyar. The public sentiment was against the use of profanity-laden words which had no place in
democracy. Incidents such as this necessitates that study regarding the use of profanity be
brought under the academic research so that such a grave issue could be addressed. This research
is an attempt in that direction.
2.4.e. American polity soaring high with profanity
Hunter Schwarz has covered the rise of profanity in the US polity over a period of last few years
in CNN's COVER/LINE articlexxxii. Schwarz points out that Michelle Obama speaking at a ―
Becoming‖ speech of her book launch spoke words of profanity that American‘s were not used
to hear when she was the first lady although Michelle Obama was quick to apologize having
realized the seriousness of the word she uttered. The politicians both in Congress and the state
legislatures were resorting to increased use of profanity as per a data from GovPredict, an
analytics firm. The firm studied 83 cases of profanity related to lawmakers in the year 2014. It
states that this rose slowly, but it rose exponentially after President Trump assumed office in
2017 with the cases of profanity rising to 1,571. And till the end of 2019 it has reached 2,409
instances. Based on the level of offensiveness the firm tracked ten words. The most used
expletive word was found to be ―sh*t‖ or a variation of it. The word saw a spike of 117% in
usage in 2018 compared to 2017. Rep Beto O‘Rourke from Texas dropped the F-bomb to
express his pride on the people who campaigned. In reply to a profane word Rep. Tulsi Gabbard,
from the democratic party replied with "Hey @realdonaldtrump: being Saudi Arabia's bitch is
not 'America First'. This reply of Rep. Gabbard was retweeted 38,000 times and liked more than
134,000 times. When state lawmakers and federal legislators, house members and senators were
compared, it was found that the former were resorting to 34% more profanity in comparison to
state law makers. A Vermont senator Bernie Sanders leads with 41 uses of profanity in the
congress to be followed by Jon Tester the senator from Montana with seven; then there is
Kentucky Republican with six profanities to his credit to be equalled by New Jersey Democrat
Bob Menendez who too had a record of six with him.
The records are equally impressive with Missouri Democrat Lacy Clay leading with 37
profanities. Sherry Frost a Democrat in New Hampshire‘s state House was a found to be most
audacious for using profanity laden words to the tune of 415 times since 2014. Frost told
cover/Line that these words existed for a reason and they ought to be used. The incidents cited
here clearly demarcate profanity as an unwanted and ugly truth that needs to be probed further
and insights collected.
2.4.f Trump the profanity president of USA
Peter Baker in his article in the New York Times in May 2019 dissects the presidential
communication during the times of President Donald Trumpxxxiii. The president rebuts his
opponents with four lettered denunciations. His bad boy image is something he wants to
maintain to project himself as a disrupter. In a single speech the President is supposed to have a
―hell‖, an ―ass‖ and used the word ―bullshits‖ for a good measure. In a rally at Panama beach he
used ten ―hells‖, three ―damns‖ and a ―crap‖ which the audience had no problem with, instead
cheered him well. Swearing is a part of his brand appeal says Melissa Mohr who has authored a
book named ―Holy Sh*t‖, on the brief history of swearing published in 2013. She states that
people tend to believe when they swear as such words are often interpreted as signs of strong
emotion like anger which his supporters seem to accept. Martha Joynt Kumar, a scholar of
presidential communication feels that Trump in his capacity as one-time television show host
had adopted such language as a part of his show, however she feels that foul language is both un-
presidential and a poor example for children. Rep. Adam B. Schiff, Democrat from California
firmly believes that such profanity is reflected as the president sets the tone in the country. He
cites examples of increased belligerent, obscene and violent calls that he gets which was not the
case earlier. Adam Schiff got a personal taste of profanity when the president nicknamed him
Adam Schitt. Other Presidents too have cases of using profanity while in office. Harry S.
Truman was told to ―give ‗em hell, Harry,‖ which was responded with the same curse words. In
2000, George W Bush was overheard over a live microphone using a word ―major league
asshole‖ for a reporter he didn‘t like. In 2004, then vice President Dick Cheney as a senator to
―go fuck yourself‖. In 2010 Joe Biden was overheard using a profanity laden word to describe
the passage of the health care legislation. President Trump has created a sort of record with his
curse words for which he was known even before becoming the President. This article highlights
the fact that profanity is not only on the rise but is also justified both by a large section of the
users as well as listeners which makes the subject worth of research and study.
2.4.g. Identifying and categorizing profanity
In a research paper presented at SemEval-2019 titled Identifying and categorizing offensive
language in social media (OffensEval), research scholars from six different universities worked
on the subject of profanity in social mediaxxxiv. The proliferation of profanity on social media has
become alarming. The task of identification was based on a specially created database called 'the
Offensive Language Identification Dataset (OLID) which was a collection of over 14000 tweets
in English. This paper differentiated between the offensive and non-offensive posts in what is
called task A whereas in task B laid stress on the type of offensive constant in the post. Finally,
sub task C tried to find against whom were these offensive posts targeted. This exercise attracted
a very large number of social media users and this became one of the most discussed exercises in
SemEval-2019. About 800 teams signed up for participation and 115 of them submitted the
findings which were further analyzed in the project. In such projects manual filtration is both
very time consuming and impractical looking at the enormous content generated on social media,
so only an automated process could be of help. Categorizing the profanity into different
parameters can help in understanding the actual intensity of the profanity and the extent of the
damage it can cause to the people. This research intends to analyse different kinds of profanity to
and the circumstances under which they are resorted to. Such a classification of profanity in this
research shall add to the existing knowledge regarding the use of profanity and its implications.
2.4.h. Simulated cyber-attack on Twitter
In a research paper published in the www.firstmonday.org, Michael Bossetta has studied the
vulnerability of social media platform to spear phising and disinformation ahead of the 2018
U.S. midterm electionsxxxv. In this study he states that state-sponsored "bad actors" arm the social
media platforms to spread campaigns which were not true and had an intention to misdirect
people, fake news and cyberattacks at the time of elections. It was found out that a bot account -
the @DCNewsReport - was created and this bot account was so programmed that it would
regularly send specially drafted tweets with a "breaking news" link to several Twitter accounts.
This bot account was identified and banned by the platform. It was found out that those social
media users who would have clicked the link would have downloaded some ransom ware or
stood chance to lose their private information. However, in this case this specially created link
was not harmful and simply redirected the users to a Google forms survey. While inferring user‘s
chances of clicking the link on Twitter, no drastic difference was found out between the right-
wing and the left-wing partisans, or between those who accessed the social media through web
or through mobile.
This study concludes that Americans who actively express their political opinions are at a
risk of being spear phished on social media irrespective of the political preferences. This could
be a study of the2018 U.S. mid-term elections but weaponization of social media by way of fake
news; disinformation is on the rise and a matter of concern both in technical terms as well as the
harm it causes to any society. All over the world this phenomenon has been noted and measures
being taken to counter it.
2.4.i. Profanity and honesty – a correlation
Many scholars have stated that use of genuine emotion even if it is anger, lead to use of
profanity. Many politicians have got away with this benefit of doubt. In a research paper
Feldman, Lian and Kosinski (2017) have tried to find the correlation between profanity and
honestyxxxvi. They found two opposite viewpoint regarding the correlation between profanity and
dishonesty. Both were forms of norm-violating behaviour and share common causes and are
considered to be related to one other. Another argument is that people use profanity to express
one‘s genuine feelings and hence it could be negatively related to dishonesty. The author‘s
conducted three different studies to explore the relation between profanity and honesty first with
the barometer of profanity behaviour and lying on a scale in the lab (Study1; N=276), after that
with language related analysis of real time social media interaction on Facebook (study 2;
N=73,789), and concluding with profanity and integrity index for the aggregate level of U.S.
states (study 3; N=50 states). It was found that profanity and honesty had a consistent
relationship. It was found that profanity had a relation with less lying and deception at an
individual level and high integrity on social level. This study brings forth a perspective regarding
the use of profanity at an individual level and societal level.
2.4.j. Why vulgarity works in political discourse?
A paper has been published in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology in 2014 by
researchers Nicletta Cavazza and Margherita Guidetti. This experimental study tried to find the
correlation between effect of politician‘s profanity and gender on their persuasivenessxxxvii. The
use of abusive words increases the recognition of language informality and improves the
impression of the origin. A female candidate did not get negatively affected in spite of using
profanity but even the male candidates did not get affected. The participant‘s view was that the
use of profanity did dilute neither their impression nor their persuasiveness. This suggests that
the effect of profanity could be instinctive and unaware.
2.4.k. Quantifying offensive speech in online political discourse
Nithyanand, Schaffner and Gill (2017) from the University of Massachusetts have tried to
measure the offensive language used in the online political discourse over different online
platformsxxxviii. Several online platforms including Reddit are much sought after mediums by the
netizens to engross in political conversations. It has been found that many online users adopt
pseudonymous identities and these results in form of offensive speech, creating more online
aggression and polarity. This kind of situation, manifest in harassment and self-censorship from
those at the receiving end. A large scale temporal measurement was designed to quantify
offensiveness in online political discourse. The preliminary result from this measurement
exercise has been furnished to infer conclusions. An offensive speech classifier was developed.
This classified was utilized to quantify and compare offensiveness in the political and general
contexts. A database of 168M Reddit comments was used to conduct the study with comments
from 7M pseudonyms. A time from starting from January 2015 and January 2017 was taken so
that it could cover a good number of diverse political events which also included the 2016 US
presidential elections.
2.4.l. ‘Women politicians should swear more’
Republican Congresswoman from Michigan Rashida Tlaib called the US president a
―motherfucker‖ and there is an article by Mari Uyehara defend her profanity laced language and
advocates that when white male politicians are not held responsible for the same reason then why
should a female politician be?xxxix .There were very strong reactions denouncing the derogatory
language used by Rashida. Leaders from Republican Party, the Democrats and the media in
general were in same line to condemn the profanity laced utterances of the lady. Mari Uyehara
states that Donald Trump‘s grab-‗em-by-the-pussy comments were described merely as ―locker-
room talks‖. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V) called Rashida‘s profanity laced utterance as
―horrible‖, ―disgusting‖, ―awful‖, and ―deplorable‖. The point Mari Uyehara makes here is that
the when white male House minority leader and others used profanity continually, it was a
normal people talk while a newly elected Palestinian-American congresswoman using a single
curse word amounts to lowering the bar for appropriate discourse in the country. She feels that
there has to same standard for everyone irrespective of gender. She boldly says that the media
should and political establishment should get used to women and people of colour conducting
themselves by the same standard white men enjoy. This is bold but a different perspective put
forward by lady journalist Mari Uyehara where she appears to be supporting profanity but
looking deep she is asking for equal treatment to all values and virtues.
2.4.m. Profanity pragmatics
The aim of a research conducted by Timothy Jay and Kristin Janschewitz published in
www.mcla.edu.com is to formulate a cognitive psychological framework to define swearing
changes its meaning when used in different contextxl. Examining how mental process in us, like
memory, language, problem solving, attention, decision making, and reasoning, with cognitive
psychology can be used to explain how we think and behave in different type of situations.
Several methodologies are employed which includes laboratory experiments, developmental
comparisons, duplication, clinical case studies etc. This study says that swearing is primarily
resorted to express emotions such as anger and frustration. Cuss words are conducive as their
meaning is connotative. The cultural and linguistic conventions decide the emotional impact of
swearing. In order to account for swearing in different situations and contexts and to establish a
link to impoliteness research a cognitive psychological framework is utilized. Students were
asked to rate the offensiveness and situation wherein taboo words could be used. The ratings
were used to demonstrate the justification of swearing is highly contextually variable, the
relationship between a speaker and the listener, social-physical context and the specific profanity
used. Offensive ratings depended on gender (for native speakers) and English experience for
non-native speakers. These data show that speakers gradually understand where, when and with
who is swearing appropriate.
2.4.n. Five insights into swearing
In a very interesting and thought-provoking study Joseph Stromberg has pointed out five insights
scientists have discovered about swearingxli. These insights help us understand profanity with
deeper perspective. The author states that academics have studied the existence and effect of
swearing in the day to day lives of individuals. Stromberg had put forward five important
insights regarding swearing.1) Use of swearing and profanity is not only increasing but it is
becoming more common over a period of time. A psychologist from Marist College named
Kristin Jay, collected data to prove this point. A similar survey was done by her and her husband
Timothy Jay which collected data and compared it to a study conducted in 1998 to prove their
findings.2)Swearing may appear socially useful but it can create trouble at times. Depending
upon the context, profanity can make people more persuasive and intense has been found by
studies.
Swearing is used to increased camaraderie among Australia construction workers
whereas in other studies it is used to signal intimacy and build rapport.3) Swearing reduces pain.
Richard Stephens, a psychologist studied the therapeutic attributes of swearing to find that
swearing in reduces pain and increases the capacity to tolerate pain.4) Swearing makes you
sweaty. A study conducted proves that swearing activates the autonomic nervous system, which
in turn has control over the involuntary functions like heart rate and perspiration.5) Neurological
disorder like Tourette syndrome can alter the swearing patterns of the people. Disturbance in the
functioning of the brain area called the basal ganglia triggers a situation which makes it difficult
for people to control involuntary taboo thoughts and suppressing them from being translated into
cuss words. This article gives us a very different but factual position regarding profanity and
swearing which is both thought provoking as well as insightful. This research intends to probe
whether social media provides opportunity for such expressions.
2.4.o. Leaving a social media footprint in the sands of time
In a study by Ashley C Myers from Schreiner University (2016) the several social media apps on
the phone contain a lot of profanity with social media users swearing, cussing and using slangs.
It has been found that social media users resorting to profanity are not even angry; profanity has
got into their everyday talk. In past when people resorted to profanity then it got lost with time
but now every word used on social media leaves a trail. Even if one deleted his or her account, it
will never be permanently get erasedxlii. Social media users using obscene words and abuses
reflect their own character in full public view. Therefore, corporate world and many
organizations look for a person's social media footprint. Usage of crude language radiates variety
of impression like immaturity, lack of respect for others, indiscipline and selfish attitudes. Lack
of education is also one perception attached to usage of crude language as uneducated people
lack the ability to find appropriate word to describe what they want to express. Social media
profiles are a kind of reliable resume which has the strength to make or break a person's prospect
when it comes for the world to have an opinion about the person. Social media is beyond one's
resume. Irresponsible and unprofessional use of social media can harm a business, an institution,
a government, a community or a family. Maximum restrain should be exercised before putting
forth irresponsible and objectionable posts on social media. Resorting to profanity or any kind of
objectionable behaviour on social media never goes unpunished and it is just not the legal aspect
but societal and his brand image.
2.4.p Fighting offensive language on social media
An interesting paper was presented in the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational
Linguistics (ACL 2018). This paper advocates fighting offensive language using unsupervised
text style transfer. Normally the methods to contain profanity are to flag and filter out the
offensive contents and this is based on the text classification and identification. This paper
propagates a method where in it produces an alternate non-offensive version of the offensive
contentxliii. On account of this not only the profanity user shall receive an alert that their content
is offensive but shall also receive a well-mannered kind of the message that can be posted. This
can persuade them to change their mind and stay away from profanity and the social media to
whom this is directed will get to see and read a message that is non-offensive and polite in
nature. The encoder-decoder neural network architecture has been employed to achieve the
objective of machine translation. The technology used to achieve this has three main
components. An RNN encoder analyses an offensive sentence and compresses into a real valued
vector. An RNN decoder creates a new sentence and then the third component which is a CNN
classifier checks whether the translation has been correctly done or not. The method that this
paper speaks about will be put to test and several improved versions could be eventually
developed. This could be a beacon of hope when it comes to control profanity of all kinds.
2.4.q Use of profanity is harmful to the mental health of the people
The harmful effects of profanity at a psychosomatic level has already been much discussed and
established. The damaging effects of profanity used on social media have too been a matter of
concern especially during elections. In an article in the Times of India on March 24th 2019 an
article by Ch Sushil Rao supports the theory that profanity is both hurtful and injurious. The
Indian Psychiatry Society has advised the politicians to refrain from using words like 'mental'
and 'mad' as a derogatory expression to counter their political opponents. This request was made
keeping in mind the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in Indiaxliv. The legal sub-committee of the
Society has written to the Election Commission of India on this issue. They have pointed out to
the election commission that several political leaders owing to different political parties have
been using terminologies like ‗mental instability', 'mad', 'mansik avastha', 'mental hospital ko
bhejna hei' and so on.
Prof Dr. B N Raveesh, and Prof Dr Suresh Math, Chairperson and Co-chairperson
respectively of Indian Psychiatry Society, have said that since India was a signatory to the
United Nations Convention on Rights to Persons with Disability (UNCRPD) and also owing to
the reason that India has passed a Mental Health Care Act 2017, it becomes mandatory for India
to be both compliant and sensitive. Both the office bearers were of the opinion that political
leaders were people with social responsibility and their using such words amounted to biased,
harsh and humiliating over the rights of persons who suffer from mental disorders. This kind of
intervention speaks of the harmful aspect that profanity brings to the people against whom that
is directed. If Indian Psychiatry Society has come out to express their commitment to promote
the improvement of the mental health of the people of India then it reinforces that profanity can
have varied kind of influence on the people and the way they conduct in response to being
victimised by profanity. This research shall try to analyse the reasons through the right research
methodology and understand various aspects related to the use of profanity and their
consequences and also recommend probable solutions to check this menace.
2.5 Summary
In this chapter, the researcher has reviewed around forty-five research studies to academically
explore the subject of social media platforms and try to find out the research gap that exists. The
research papers reviewed clearly show how social media platforms have eventually got defined,
developed and now fully integrated into the lives of many as an inextricable aspect. Millions of
social media users have allowed the insinuation of the social media into everything that matters
to them, be it politics, profession, home life, lifestyle directly influencing the way people think
and act. One very important aspect of the social media is that it reinvents itself as per the
aspirations and preferences of its users and hence constantly evolves. It truly personifies the
social media users. Section 1.2 of the review of literature gives very valuable insights into the
world of social media analytics. The literature reviewed establishes a correlation between search
engine manipulation and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections. The apparent power of
search rankings can alter the preferences of the undecided voters. Another literature has
addressed the internet as the new mind control mechanism and has tried to gain clarity on the
subtle forms of influence that can manipulate everything we do and say. Yet another paper talks
about predicting the election results by applying the sentiment analysis. The use of social media
as an analytic framework is yet another insightful study along with ongoing work on decoding
the social media analytics. Hence the power of the analytical aspect of social media is helping us
to draw many insights as highlighted by the literatures reviewed.
It is apparent that although enough work has been done on social media, its reach, impact
and analytics, there is a scope to probe the subject of profanity on social media as an academic
study. The different aspects of profanity used on social media platforms needs to be probed more
and greater insights discovered. Chapter two helps this study to identify the research gap and
helps in understanding how a study on profanity could add to the ocean of existing knowledge
further consolidating the subject. This study has reviewed several literatures on profanity on
social media and its implications and has identified the scope of its research to gain more
insights on the effect of profanity used by the social media users on the voting pattern exhibited
by the social media users in their capacity as voters.
Endnotes
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3. Saifuddin Ahmed, Impact of Internet penetration on the election
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of_political_p arties/links/5701a6b408ae650a64f8c4f6.pdf
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5. Newman,N and Blank, G (2012). Social Media in the Changing Ecology of News: The
Fourth and Fifth Estates in Britain .Retrieved from
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6. Akar, E and Topcu, B (2011). An Examination of the Factors Influencing Consumers‘
Attitudes Towards Social Media Marketing Retrieved from
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7. Barbera, P (2015). How Social Media Reduces Mass Political Polarization. Evidence
from Germany, Spain and the U.S Retrieved from
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8. Xenos, M and Loader, B (2014) The great equaliser? Patterns of social media use and
youth political engagement in three advanced democracies .Retrieved from
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9. Herald, S and Peter, G (2013). The Power of Prediction with social media .Retrieved
from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IntR-06-2013-0115
10. Barclay. F, Venkat. A, Sudhakaran, S (2015, March) India 2014 Elections: Facebook
Like as a predicator of election outcomes. Retrieved from
11. Hasse, A and Young, A (2010). Uses and Gratification of Social Media: A comparison of
Facebook and Instant Messaging .Retrieved from
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12. Woolley, J and Oliver, M (2010). The 2008 Presidential Election.2.0: A Content Analysis
of User-Generated Political Facebook Groups. Retrieved from
13. Franch, F. (2013). (Wisdom of the Crowds)2:2010 UK election prediction with social
media. Journal of information Technology & Politics, 10(1), 57-71. Retrieved from
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14. Moore, M., & Ramsay, G. N. (2016). Digital Agenda-Setting: Measuring mainstream and
social media influence during the UK 2015 election campaign. Ethical Space: The
International Journal of Communication Ethics, 13(1), 21-29.
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st-live (Retrieved from MICA Library on 15/08/2017)
15. Social media has emerged as a disruptive communication platform
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st-live
16. Biswas, A et al., (2014) Influence of Social Media on Voting Behavior. Journal of Power
& Governance June 2014, Vol. 2, pp.127-155. Retrieved from
http://jppgnet.com/journals/jppg/Vol_2_No_2_June_2014/7.pdf
17. Kapoor, K and Dwivedi, Y (2015). Metamorphosis of Indian electoral campaigns: Modi's
social media experiment. Retrieved from
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20/08/2017)
18. Mangold, G & Faulds, D (2009) Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion
mix Retrieved from
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19. Hasse, A and Young, A (2010). Uses and Gratification of Social Media: A comparison of
Facebook and Instant Messaging. Retrieved on 01/09/2017
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0270467610380009
20. Epstein, R & Robertson R (n,d) Search Engine Manipulation influence voter
manipulation. Retrieved from https://www.pnas.org/content/112/33/E4512
21. Epstein, R (2016). Internet the new mind control mechanism. Retrieved on 15/08/2017
https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts
22. Hong, S., and Nadler, D. (2012). Which candidates do the public discuss online in an
election campaign?: The use of social media by 2012 presidential candidates and its
impact on candidate salience. Government information quarterly, 29(4), 455-461
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23. Oliveira, D. J. S., et al (2017). Can social media reveal the preferences of voters? A
comparison between sentiment analysis and traditional opinion polls. Journal of
Information Technology & Politics, 14(1), 34-45. Retrieved from MICA Library on
05/09/2017
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=121839362&site=ehos
t-live
24. Stieglitz, S and Xuan, L (2012). Social media and Political communication: A social
media analytics framework. Retrieved on 02/09/2017
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13278-012-0079-3
25. Leskovec, J (2011). Social media analytics: tracking, modelling, and predicting the flow
of information through networks. Retrieved on
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_tracking_modeling_and_predicting_the_flow_of_information_through_networks
26. Abusive Language in Politics: Growing Trend. (2014, December 4). Retrieved March 4,
2018, from http://www.elections.in/blog/abusive-language-growing-trend-politics/
27. Bhagat, R (2017) Another election more filthy language. Retrieved from
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/another-election-more-filthy-
language/article22306747.ece1
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Online: A Large-Scale Exploration of Political Versus Non Political Online News Sites.
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e=ssce
29. Indo-Asian News Service (2018). Social media will never be allowed to abuse India‘s
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abuse-indias-election-process-r-s-prasad-5049301.html
30. Parliamentary language non-congruent to democracy (2014). Retrieved from
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Chapter 2

2.1 Social media: The role, reach and impact.

2.2 Emergence of digital election in India.

2.3 Social media analytics and search engine manipulation.

2.4 Profanity on social media and its far reaching implications

2.1 Social media: The role, reach and impact

research to gain more insight into this subject.

2.1.a Is political branding a fad or innovation in political communication?

political branding is an extended arm and a prominent element of political communication. An

but also possible to identify the point of differentiation.

content spans out to even those who are not on Facebook.

to study the influence of social media on elections.

2.1.c Impact of Internet penetration on the election communication

where the Internet penetration is very low.

2.1.d Social Media as a tool of change

impact of the social media on the Egyptian revolution in2011iv.

and the world media.

have an effect on the election outcome.

2.1.e Does social media undermine the press?

not the traditional media.

2.1.f Filling the gap and creating clarity on social media

minds pertaining to these factors could be clarified.

by Shailee Chopra (2014).

2.1.g Social media reduces political polarization

primary source of gathering political information, to interact and converse in political

people connect with each other as per the studies.

well analyzed decision.

2.1.h Social media: The great equalizer

the process by which youths become politically engaged.

2.1.i Using social media to predict the future

research done by a set of scholars comprising of Schoen Harald, university of Bamberg –

touches their hearts and minds

2.1.j A bouquet of digital technologies for comprehensive communication

Anabel Quan-Haase, University of Western Ontaria and Alyson L. Young, University of

of technologies in order to fulfil them.

findings of the research.

2.1.k Facebook is the new communication tool for political parties

as an impactful platform for political communicationxii. To generate more insights, they

empowered the people to speak out their minds without fear.

conducted interviews with US democrats to understand their perceptions of candidate‘s

both in support and against his narrative.

2.1.m Social media reflects the wisdom of the crowds

anger and complaint.

2.2 Emergence of digital election in India

convincing the voters during elections

2.2.b Metamorphosis of Indian parliamentary elections

two-way dialogue between Modi and the electorate.

had it undergone a tactical shift in expression of sentiments.

over what is discussed about them.

control of the party or the party machinery.

2.2.d Social media is both alternative and critical

2.3 Search engine manipulation influence voter manipulation

and the invincibility maintained.

result in determination of an election outcome. Acknowledging the might of search rankings,

level there is scope for more in-depth study.

2.3.a Internet the new mind control mechanism

was conducted without consent of the participants.

simply difficult to comprehend and detect for the investigators.

decide the candidate salience.

2.3.c. Predicting the election results by applying the sentiment analysis